生徒会の一存

SEITOKAI NO ICHIZON

Comedy

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
December 19, 2009
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

The members of the student council of Hekiyou Gakuen are chosen by a popularity vote. As a result, all the members are cute girls except for Sugisaki Ken, who studied hard to enter the council. The story features the endless chattering of the members full of parodies of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", "Dragon Ball", "Death Note", etc.

CAST

Chizuru Akaba
Yuka Saitou
Mafuyu Shiina
Yuki Horinaka
Ken Sugisaki
Takashi Kondou
Kurimu Sakurano
Mariko Honda
Minatsu Shiina
Misuzu Togashi
Elise Toudou
Ai Shimizu
Lilicia Toudou
Mamiko Noto
Satori Magiru
Mami Kosuge
Echo of Death
Takahiro Sakurai
Yoshiki Nakameguro
Kazutomi Yamamoto
Kanade Miyashiro
Haruka Tomatsu

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO SEITOKAI NO ICHIZON

ONA ComedySeitokai no Ichizon Lv.2

NOVEL ComedySeitokai no Ichizon

Cover Art for Hekiyou Gakuen Seitokai Mokushiroku

NOVEL ComedyHekiyou Gakuen Seitokai Mokushiroku

REVIEWS

aabir
48/100
Your typical harem, but with atypical potential.
Setokai no Ichizon is, for the lack of better words, a cliched story. In fact, its so cliche that you can just rename it to generic harem story #42515. What's the story? Harem. What's the animation? Harem. What's the subplot? Harem. Its almost as if Seitokai no Ichizon just plans to cash in on greasy neckbeards whose only happiness comes from wish-fulfillment characters such as the main lead, Ken Sugisaki - whose only interest is playing eroge and constantly talking about it with girls who are clearly repulsed by them. Still, for some reason, the girls fall in love with him - because that's what a harem is.

Artwork and Animation (8/20)
The artwork is horrible - nay, atrocious on a very good day. Its grainy and flimsy. So let's start in sequence. Firstly, faces. The facial features are terrible, and the faces are overgrown to shit (like, more than half the size of the body), which is quite pronounced in Kurimu and Minatsu's characters. The others have it too, just not to a very high degree.

Next up, the environment, which is also quite horrible. It is sparsely detailed and it never can create the environment needed and its a far cry from good. It looks terrible and there is nothing to it. The council room (which is where 80% of the work is done) could have seriously done with a revival. Its just a table, some chairs and a bunch of boxes. Atleast put SOMETHING there, it isn't a shack.

And, now the animation. The animation is choppy, flies every which way and combined with the horrible artwork it just might kill you. Character movements are cluttery at best and the action scenes look ridiculous. Even the breast physics are crap.

Other than that, the only releases of seitokai no ichizon today that have any seeds are 480p versions...so good luck with that.

Sound and Music (12/20)
The voice acting is pretty bad, and I could never really feel sucked into the story because of how dull the sounds -in general- were. The only person that was even a bit convincing was Lilicia's character, and other than that, the characters were flat as a board.

The music is kind of a saving grace of the series, with atleast its OP being good and quite catchy and had a somewhat good music video. Sadly, even this falters when it comes to the ED. The ED is terrible and has a boring music video. Of course, it could just be my shitty taste in music.

Story - Or lack thereof (10/20)
The story line in Seitokai no Ichizon doesn't quite exist. It is more comedy than having an actually decent storyline. While the comedic effect isn't bad, it relies too much on references - and not even good ones at that. Like, honestly, what's the point of a reference if it is thinly veiled, and even mentioned in the official description? Like, seriously. References are supposed to be inside jokes, and you aren't supposed to base an entire season's worth of episodes on them. That gets old really, really quick. And god forbid you are on the outside of the inside joke, because that will destroy whatever little comedic effect Seitokai no Ichizon does have. Other than the references, the only other source of comedy is the girls beating up MC in rapidly escalating sadistic ways because the MC said something they didn't like or were embarrassed about, which I guess is funny for some, but for me, it was just too cliche.

So far we have already established that Seitokai no Ichizon is nothing on its own and relies on other "classical" anime to get its viewer base. Now, its story? Surprisingly enough, the story is pretty good, not there is enough of it, but when it does come, its great. The overall story (and in turn, most of the development) only shows its face at the start and end of individual arcs, which is disappointing to say the least. Still, when it does get executed, it almost looks like the romance was good enough. Plot progression is pretty bad though.

Characters (8/20)
Honest to god, what's the worst and blandest characters you ever saw? No one really cares, cause Seitokai no Ichizon is gonna take all those titles away. By far the characters were absolutely dreadful and cliche. I'll go in order.

Ken Sugisaki - The main character and a pervert, he constantly mentions that he wants to make a harem out of the student council and repeatedly gets his ass kicked. He plays a lot of eroges and his only positive quality is that he sits after school to finish all the work the "cute girls" couldn't do and hence establishing himself as the "man", you know, since women love responsible people.

Kurimu Sakurano - The token loli and the character that "is in highschool but hasn't grown since elementary school". her job is to act as the girl who brings in breast envy and whines about how she is a 'lady' while going head-over-heels for candy. For all intents and purposes, she IS an elementary school student, who was sent to high school as an excuse so that people who sexualize her can say "I'm totally not a pedophile bro, 17 year olds are fair game!"

Minatsu Shiina - The typical "Tough chick" who is good at sports and beats the MC for being a pervert. She also likes action games and is -for some weird reason- good at maths. Her entire plot goes around her trying to protect her sister from the lecherous hands of Sugisaki.

Chizuru Akaba - The "mature" woman. This can't be said enough. SHE IS MATURE. LIKE, REALLY MATURE. The plot constantly reminds you of this by repeatedly mentioning that she makes more money than everyone combined and already has a high profile job. She is also a sadist whose only job is to act as a maternal guardian towards Kurimu the loli. Wait, how the fuck does sadistic and maternal go together? Because its a harem, that's why it goes together.

Enjoyment (10/20)
While Seitokai no Ichizon isn't bad it isn't good either. Not if you don't like watching the same shit you watched in harem anime #125. Still, It has some comedic relief and its storyline can sometimes be fairly intense. But in hindsight, it end up being just what it wants to be, it copies every harem anime ever and ends like every harem anime ever - mediocre. Best I can call it is a good copypasta.

I won't write a review for its second season (Seitokai no Ichizon lv 2) because I haven't watched it, and I most probably won't either.

Final verdict - 48/100
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doo78
90/100
What the hell is this goofy mess?! And why do I love it so much?!
Anime is full of grand adventures, epic tales and profound stories. It has the ability to take you to a completely different world. Yet, sometimes I just can’t be bothered with that. Sometimes all I want is to turn my brain off and laugh at some goofy people goofing off and being stupid. Seitokai no Ichizon is the perfect anime to lay back, relax and chill out to—it’s cosy, silly and light-hearted, and, honestly, I just can’t get enough of it.

In the very first scene of the first episode, “Understanding the differences in media” is written on the whiteboard. The characters joke about how they can make the anime more appealing than the light novel, with some self-deprecating jokes along with it. Out of curiosity, I decided to actually investigate the differences in media by reading the first volume of the light novel. While the light novel definitely has its appeal—one that’s slightly different from the anime—I think the anime’s funnier. The ‘difference in media’ I observed was the sheer power of visual comedy, voice acting and comedic timing. The anime breathes life into the interactions by adding so much energy and liveliness that’s only really possible in an audiovisual medium. On top of that, I noticed how the plot was shifted around a bit. Rather than adapting the story one-to-one, they took bits and pieces and mixed them with others, with different contexts, to make it flow a little better. So, I have to say, the anime and light novel did help me understand the differences in media. Thanks for bringing it up, President!

One of the big reasons I decided to watch this was that it’s a 2000s anime. I realised that I hadn’t watched many older anime and wanted to broaden my horizons by branching in that direction. Now, it’s very clear from the art-style that it’s an older anime, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. Older anime have a certain appeal to them that’s hard to describe. Although I’d say animation quality has improved over the years—especially in action scenes—I might prefer the character designs and style of 2000s anime. For the record, that’s not nostalgia speaking. I was a little poopy baby boy when the anime came out so I can’t say “those were the good ol’ days”. Well, peeing all around the house probably was the good old days, but that’s not the point. Despite not having experienced anime in the 2000s, there’s a particular charm to them, similar to that of a childhood summer. With the art-style and general ‘vibes’, the anime radiates that feeling and makes it so incredibly endearing.

The anime revolves around the main character, Sugisaki, and four other girls that he wants in his harem. Every episode consists of them sitting in the student council room talking, chatting, goofing off, wasting time, erm… that’s about it…? It’s as close to a sit-com you’ll get in anime (I think? I’ve never actually watched a sit-com). Slice of Life is one of my favourite genres, so I love this kind of dynamic, but I’d imagine a lot of people would be put off by this. Moreover, there really isn’t much conflict at all. Stories normally centre around conflict, so without it you’d think it would just be boring. But, slice of life seems to be the exception, for some reason. This anime is stress-free and never takes itself seriously, which is nice every now and then.

One of the funniest things about it is how self-conscious it is. It might even be the most self-conscious anime I’ve ever watched. I mean, even in the very first scene that I mentioned before, one of the characters read a review that says ‘the story’s the same and nothing goes on’, taking a dig at itself. Not only that but it’s pretty much a parody of harems. It realises how silly the idea of a harem is, so it doesn’t take it seriously at all. It’s so goofy and ridiculous that it sometimes feels like a parody of anime itself. It knows exactly what it is and doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. Something I noticed around half-way through was that they change the lyrics to the ending each time. And each time, it’s complete gibberish. Utterly random and super silly. In episode 11, the ending is the President mouthing off about how great she is and how you must vote for her for the whole ending. Sometimes the ending has the voice actors laughing at themselves, forgetting the lyrics or singing out of sync, and they kept all of that in. Now, I don’t know about you, but I think the voice actors had a lot of fun with this anime.

Something that stands out is the references. I know Gintama is supposed to have a bunch, but I haven’t seen it yet, so this anime probably has the most I’ve seen in an anime. It mentions Naruto, Gurren Lagann (even kind of spoils it), Haruhi, Index, Fullmetal Alchemist and even freaking Metal Gear Solid. I can’t remember if it was in the anime or light novel, but one of the lines is, “Don’t speak until Hunter x Hunter is finished!”. If Sugisaki took a vow of silence and became a monk to obey that, he still wouldn’t be able to speak (please finish HxH, Togashi, I’m begging). Also, they reference the light novel’s publishing company a bunch. They go so off the rails with the references that they often have to censor themselves to avoid copyright, which, in itself, is pretty funny.
What’s more, the anime breaks the 4th wall more than any anime I’ve seen too. The first scene I described is one example of that. But throughout they constantly say how Mafuyu’s characterization is being ruined by her BL love, or how Minatsu being good at math doesn’t fit her character, or how having a meeting about what to do with student absences is too basic and wouldn’t be fun for the viewers to watch. It takes all the rules about immersion and throws them out the window for the hell of it.

Now, in terms of the actual comedy, it is hilarious. The skits and gags are utterly absurd and it never takes itself seriously. It’s fast-paced with ridiculous situations, great one-liners and goofy slapstick. It’s not necessarily adult comedy, but definitely not pee poo childish humour either. The lack of emphasis on immersion and realism allows them to do the most nonsensical and stupid things. The bread and butter of the comedy is the straight man, funny man act, where one character will say something stupid and the other will retort, addressing how little sense it made. But the characters aren’t type casted into either role—it usually changes to fit the situation. Anime usually has a ‘comfy’ type of comedy as opposed to other media, for me at least. Though Seitokai no Ichizon made me laugh out loud time and time again.

The characters themselves are quirky and hilarious. Each with their own unique qualities and flaws, such that you can simply put them in a room together and it’ll be hilarious no matter what they do. Despite lightly fitting into certain character archetypes, they each have plenty of aspects that distinguish themselves from that and make them lovable by their own merit. The anime drops us in with them already being friends, so they’re close to each other from the beginning. This lends to the comedy involving each character teasing or making fun of the others a lot of the time, which is possible because of how quirky and goofy they inherently are. It reminds me of a bunch of teenagers messing around and mouthing off to each other, which is what they actually are. But it really does capture that youthful dynamic of being so rude and horrible to each other, in a loving way. They can only do that because of how close they are.

Despite how much they tease and poke fun at each other, the anime makes it clear how much they genuinely value their friendship. They truly cherish the time they have together and the safe space they’ve created in the student council. And whenever necessary, they stand up for each other and have each other’s backs. As cheesy as it is, that’s a true friendship being portrayed.
Comedy is such a powerful tool, especially with how it can contrast seriousness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s mostly jokes—the author even said it’s “90% jokes and less than 10% serious”—but there are a few moments where it strips back the goofiness and has some thought-provoking scenes. There’s a scene where they’re in Tokyo and watch the sunset silently together, and somehow it’s really beautiful. A few scenes like that are scattered here and there, and although they’re not what stands out in the show, they’re rather impactful because of how rare they are.

It’s hard to really criticise a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I would’ve said that the interaction between the girls was lacking, but then there was an episode when Sugisaki got sick and it was just them, and they held out together great without him. I suppose it could be lacking some climactic and memorable moments, but I’m not too hung up on that.
Overall, it’s so lovable, silly, hilarious and has some great moments shining through. I’m looking forward to season 2 of this, which is hopefully just as good. 9/10.
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